Celebrating brother!

Our church threw a baby shower for us about 3 weeks before I had the baby. Here are a couple pictures from that day. 

Hadley and Mommy at Brother's shower. 

All the gifts from the shower. We are very lucky to have such a generous church and so many people who love us and are so excited for brother. 

Cousin Shelby made Hadkey a "Frozen" blanket because she made brother a blanket too. She didn't want to be left out. She is in love with her blanket though. She is obsessed with Frozen. 

This was 5 days before I had Hayden. Miserable and ready to pop! 

Green corn festival 2014

Hadley enjoyed herself at the Bixby Green Corn Festival this summer!! She was able to ride her first roller coaster! She LOVED it! She actually wanted to ride the bigger, adult roller coasters. She didn't understand why she couldn't go on them. 

Hadley's snack shack

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, HADLEY GIRL!!!!!

We celebrated Hadley's 3rd birthday this year. The theme was "Hadley's Snack Shack." We invited everyone to join us for Hadley's "3 favorite P's: Pretzels, Popcorn, and Pie." 

Hadley had been making requests for her birthday for months. She requested these pretzels I make for parties. They are spicy  ranch pretzels. They are spicy, but the girl likes spice!! She also requested cinnamon sugar popcorn. Instead of cake, it was a no-brainer, we served pie. THIS GIRL loves pie. Her favorite is pecan pie. So I made the pretzels, Nammy made the popcorn (she had the whirlly popper), and Grandma made the pies. 

Welcome to Hadley's snack shack!! 

Spicy Ranch Pretzels: 

1 bag of a 1 lb bag of pretzels 

1/4 cup of vegetable oil 

1 package of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix 

1/2 tsp Lemon Pepper 

1/2 tsp garlic powder 

1/4 tsp seasoning salt 

Red pepper flakes to taste 

Mix well and pour over pretzels. I empty the entire 1 lb bag of pretzels into a brown paper sack. Then pour the seasoning mixture over the pretzels. Shake the bag to mix and coat the pretzels. Let them set over night. 

Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn: 

1/4 cup of peanut oil 

1/4 cup of sugar 

1/4 cup of popcorn kernels 

Cinnamon sugar mix: 

1/4 cup of sugar 

1 tbsp of cinnamon 

It's best to use a whirlly popper. But you can just use a regular pan. 

Pour the oil, sugar, and popcorn into the whirlly popper. Keep it spinning until all popcorn is popped. Pour popped popcorn into a bowl or on a tray. IMMEDIATELY, while still hot and sticky (from the sugar), sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on top of hot popcorn. Mix it or toss it for the cinnamon sugar to cover the popcorn completely. 

Let it rest and come to room temperature. Or I prefer to let it rest over night. Popping the popcorn in sugar and letting it rest over night let's the popcorn become super crunchy! 

The day... [summer wrap up]

The day that.... 

... We took Hadley to go see SpiderMan 2! 

...she thought her laugh was so funny. "Take a picture, Mommy!" 

...she tried to help Grandma fold clothes. 

...Hadley, Tatum, and Titus were hiding under the couch tent. 

...she dressed up as SpiderMan. 

...we took her to the zoo!

...she finally had just enough hair to do a (small) Elsa braid! 

...she completed the summer reading program at the library. 

...Nammy took her to the water park. 

...she wanted to take a nap with me, but insisted on laying on the floor (in front of the vent!!) 

...found this Sleeping Beauty costume. 

...she let her Daddy lay in her bed. 

...Daddy gave Hadley some money. We went "back to school" clothes shopping. She picked out this outfit and tried it on in the dressing room and declared she was "SO fashionable!!" 

Brother Pickle has arrived!!

Just a quick update for my family and friends far away: On Monday, September 29th, at 12:49 pm, we welcomed Hayden General Gibson. He weighed 8 lb 3 oz. He measured 20 1/2 in long. 

He is perfect, Mommy is in love, Daddy is so proud of his babies, and Sissy is already loving to feed and hold him. 

Hadley grows!!

While on our trip in Missouri, we went to Wal-Mart one night to get some headphones for Hadley. She didn't like the ear bud headphones I gave her. She kept saying her ear plugs were falling out. 

While we were at Wal-Mart I found this growth chart. I mentioned to Lee that my biggest regret was not getting one when Hadley was born. We had just had a disagreement on Hadley's height. I insisted she was already half of my height. He didn't agree. 

We bought the chart.

Well, on 5/29/14, Hadley found it and Lee hung it up for her. We measured her. She loved it. 

Now we have this to keep forever. I love seeing marks on old family doors of everyone's height (like at Lee's grandparents house), but if we ever sell this house (LORD WILLING!!!) we can't exactly take a door with us. I love that this one is paper and easily moved. 

 

P.S. -- She is half of my height.

Spring time 2014

Winter came and left. 

We moved into Spring time.

With warmer temperatures and lots of sneezing from allergies. Hello, Oklahoma!

One of the first warmer days this year, I took Hadley to the park. She loves to play outside, but our yard is filled with stickers in the grass. I can't take it. They are annoying and they get all over you. We have a local park that is just a few miles down the road from us. We try to go there frequently (time and weather permitting).

Of course to go with Spring time you also need some new sunglasses.

Quickly after upgrading to her big girl bed, Hadley potty trained herself through the night. I'm not joking. When we moved her into the big girl bed she was still wearing diapers at night. Usually at nap time as well (unless Lee would forget to put a pull up on her). We were about a week or two into being in the new big girl bed and she started waking up in the middle of the night. At first I thought, "Oh great. Here we go with the trying to get up and sleep in our bed." I was wrong. She was waking up because she needed to go potty. So I would take her and she would go straight back to bed. After two weeks of doing this consecutively, every  night, while in a diaper, I told Hadley that that weekend we would go buy a mattress cover for her bed (just in case) and new "night time panties." I wanted a cover to protect the bed for the accidents I knew would come later. I also wanted to get her training panties for night time since they are a little thicker. Well, much to my surprise, she never had an accident. She never had any problems getting up to go potty. Honestly, her first accident was just about three weeks ago (in my bed none the less, LOL).

Hadley has also discovered she likes wearing "big cozy shirts" to bed, like Mommy,  in the place of a pajama set. She found this "wow wow" truck shirt in her closet one night. She insisted on wearing the "Daddy truck" to bed.

I was getting ready one morning while Hadley was still asleep. I open my drawers to find this! Her blow dryer in the same drawer as my blow dryer. Her straightener in the same drawer as my straightener. Too smart for her own good, I tell ya!

Spring time is definitely more of her pace. 

She loves to be outside and playing.

She particularly likes to be out at her grandparents house trying to catch bunnies. She is never quiet enough. 

Go figure... 

Two year old, wild child. 

Let's take it back... Wrap up 2013

HELLO BLOG WORLD! 

I started this blog when I was pregnant with Hadley. I wanted to document every month I was pregnant with her. I want to remember all the little moments we have with her. 

There are so many other social media outlets that I seem to forget about my little blog. 

It's kind of sad when I think about it too. I'm a writer by nature. I enjoy doing it. I feel like I'm fairly decent at it. Yet, it's the one thing I completely neglect. 

I should make a resolution to keep up with this better. 

Oh wait!! I had a good post about 2014 resolutions ... that I forgot to write :)

Anyway, I figured since I haven't updated since September then I needed to just do a big "wrap up" post for the rest of 2013.So here we go. Be prepared for lots of pictures and probably not many words.

Hadley at Charmichael's Pumpkin Patch.

Hadley trying to pick out a pumpkin. She wasn't really "in to it" this year.

The stencil she chose for her pumpkin. She liked it because it was like "Monster's INC."

Hadley digging out and carving her pumpkin with Daddy.

Hadley's Wednesday night class at church painting pumpkins. This was the first time she had done this. She loved it.

Hadley had two costumes this year. During the day she was Minnie Mouse.  Cutest Minnie I've ever seen :)

Trunk-OR-Treat at church; We made a castle to go along with Hadley's second costume.

Costume #2: Cinderella

I forgot to have her two year old pictures taken. So me and her cousin Shelby took her to the park around two and a half years to try and get some pictures. I think we did pretty decent considering we have no idea what we are doing.

Around Thanksgiving, we all had family pictures done at Lee's parent's house. This is my favorite :)

Family picture in front of the Christmas tree after decorating the house all day.

Hadley seeing Santa Clause. This went much better than I anticipated. She loved him.

Hadley at Nammy's house (with her cousins) making gingerbread houses. She was so proud of her little "castle."

Christmas morning with her gifts from Santa and Mommy and Daddy.

The cousins at Nammy's house for Christmas round 2. 

That wraps up 2013!
It's crazy to look back at the pictures from what seems like not that long ago and already see such a change in Hadley and how she has grown.
The one thing I love most about Hadley is how eager she is to do everything.
She is excited for every holiday.
She is ready for most all new experiences.
She wants to try everything "all by myself!!"
We aren't rich. We can't give her everything she wants and probably everything we want to give her.
But she doesn't care (nor does she know).
She is so happy to do and have everything she does.
She loves her little life.
And I love her.